To foster their development in the Research and Assessment Profession-Wide Competencies, psychology interns will be given opportunities to support and increase their knowledge of current and relevant research as well as the development of skills associated with lifelong learning. During these opportunities, interns will demonstrate their ability to communicate their findings and implications of relevant research and assessments in an accurate, effective, and professional way that is mindful to a range of audiences.
Intern Critical Analysis
Interns are given the opportunity to critically analyze a patient case or a general topic and present their findings at a community presentation or all-staff, etc., or present to the intern group during group supervision. Interns are expected to read and digest information and present that information in a way that is clear and understandable. It could be presented at the local (including the host institution), regional, or national level. When presented at the site level, sites may have additional performance needs and/or direction for the presentation(s) based on the group and overall goals. Interns may need to complete more than one presentation per internship year but need to complete at least one presentation to demonstrate competency in areas of the Research and Assessment competencies. Interns will be responsible for having all research completed and materials prepared in time for their presentation date(s).
General Expectations
Generally, interns should be evaluated on their ability to:
● Demonstrate ability to critically evaluate and review research or other scholarly activities to inform clinical decision-making including selecting/applying the appropriate instrument and/or screening methods,
● Disseminate research or other scholarly activities at the local, regional, or national level,
● Communicate the findings and implications of assessments in an accurate and effective manner sensitive to a range of audiences.
Regardless of approach, the presentation should include the following areas of consideration and discussion of research based on their topic:
● Relevant research on cultural and diversity issues
● Available research and evidence-based practices
● Rationale for assessment instrument (evaluation/screening tool) and/or conceptualization and approach (include any other tests that could have been used that would have also been helpful) as applicable
● Ethical considerations
For Case Presentations, interns should also include:
● Strengths and limitations of intervention/treatment plan
● Rationale for intervention choice/discussion of evidence-based alternatives
● Use of supervision/consultation
● Discussion of case/topics application to internship setting (e.g. primary care)
Presentations should be at least 25-minutes with an additional five minutes for questions and discussion to allow for appropriate demonstration of evaluative measures. Presentations given at site agencies may be longer, but in these instances, interns should be given additional time in their schedule to complete the materials. At minimum, presentations must include a PowerPoint, a reference list including at least three relevant journal articles discussed within the presentation and one additional journal article specific to cultural and diversity issues, and handouts (if applicable). The reference list can be included as a slide in the PowerPoint presentation. An important part of this requirement is time management and interns need to be conscientious when putting the presentation together to be able to stay within the time period.
Journal Review
All member sites should allow interns two hours in their weekly schedule for self-directed journal review. It is expected that the self-directed journal review time is also used to research for their presentation(s). The intern should review topics related both to areas applicable to present training and to areas of professional interest such as dissertation-related topics. It is strongly recommended that 10% of these journal articles are topics related to diversity in order to further reinforce the intern’s development in the Individual and Cultural Diversity Profession-Wide Competency. It will be a standing item in the weekly intern supervision to discuss what the intern learned from their journal readings during the previous week. Although not generally required, interns may be asked to provide written summaries of the articles reviewed if the primary supervisor feels a need for specific guidance or remediation to complete this task. These two hours per week should be protected/scheduled time and not to be used for any other activities other than what is listed above. These two hours also do not have to be a consecutive two hours during the week, but can be split up during the course of the week.